The Riddle of the Mysterious Light

  CHAPTER XV

  THE LAYING OF THE VALEHAMPTON "GHOST"

  AS they issued from the churchyard a couple of gamekeepers, standing onguard with loaded shotguns, challenged them.

  "That's all right, Norton," said Cleek, as one of them stepped forwardto bar the way. "It is only His Grace and the rest of us coming to seethe final kick-up. You can let us pass with impunity."

  "Right, sir," said Norton, and stepped aside.

  "The beggars made fine work of it, didn't they, Mr. Narkom?" said Cleekwith a laugh, as he pointed to the battered condition of the raidedcottage. "Door, window, and half the wall battered down! They _were_ anenergetic lot! Did they all go in, then, Norton?"

  "Yes, sir, every blessed one of them; and Mr. Naylor himself with thelot. They'll be coming out in a minute, I'm thinking--fancy I can hearsomeone running."

  He had scarcely more than finished speaking than there came a clatter ofhasty footsteps running up wooden steps, and presently a man, smearedand streaked with yellow clay, dashed in through the scullery door ofthe cottage and flung himself across the main room, as if running fordear life.

  The two gamekeepers rushed forward, and their guns went up likeclockwork.

  "Now, then, _you_! Stop where you are," sang out Norton. "You don't takeyour hook without there's a line on it--and a sinker, too, if you don'tlook sharp. Hands up!"

  The runner obeyed one part of the command at least. That is to say, hestopped short, but instead of throwing up his hands he shouted out in avoice of great excitement:

  "Don't make a fool of yourself, Norton; it is only I--Naylor. Get alitter! Get a doctor! We've nabbed the two Hurdons and the gypsy,Costivan; but that fellow Carstairs had a pistol with him, the brute,and after putting a ball through Weston's leg and another into Farley'scap, the beggar shot himself."

  "What's that? Shot himself? Carstairs?"

  "Oh, that you, Mr. Cleek, is it? Yes, sir, shot himself--through thetemple, and I'm afraid he's done himself in."

  "Dead?"

  "As a doornail, sir. Hole in his head you could put your two fingers in!It's Weston I want the doctor and the litter for. Carstairs won't needanything any more--his little jig is done!"

  "And I let the beggar slip me like that!" said Cleek, striking histongue against the roof of his mouth with a mild clicking sound thricerepeated. "A cold-blooded butcher of that fellow's type--the one realtiger in the whole skulking pack of jackals--and to get off so easily!Too bad, too bad. Well, it can't be helped, I suppose. You got theothers all safe and sound, didn't you?"

  "Yes, sir, all three."

  "Close to the end, were they?"

  "Very close, sir. Just as you reckoned. They'd have been in beforemorning. The floor of the strong-room was just beginning to show inplaces, and they had the soup all ready and waiting. We nabbed them justin time."

  Here the sound of a woman's smothered screams and of men's curses becamedimly audible. Mr. Naylor jerked his thumb backward over his shoulder inthe direction from which they came.

  "That will be them now," he said. "They are bringing the lot up."

  "Get down and stop them, then," said Cleek. "All these good people willnot care to see an exhibition of that sort now that it has taken atragic turn. Hold them there for another ten minutes. Don't bring evenWeston up. The sight would not be a pleasant one for the duke."

  Here Mr. Narkom, waiting only for Naylor to take his departure, chose todeliver a dig at his friend.

  "I notice," he said in an undertone, "that for all your fine scorn ofdukes you are taking devilish good care of this one."

  "Excellent, my friend! Your powers of observation are improving. Noticeanything else as well?"

  "Yes. You are conducting this affair somewhat off your usual lines, andinstead of being bowled over with astonishment by your revelations, thisparticular duke doesn't seem surprised at anything."

  "He isn't. I told him everything beforehand. Doctor Forsyth advised it;his heart is weak. Any more questions, please?"

  "Yes, one. In the name of Heaven, what did you cut up that faintingcaper for last night?"

  "Come over to the cottage door. Look there. See that thing in thecorner? By the sofa there--with the quilt half over it?"

  "Mean the box with the wire netting over the front?"

  "Exactly. That's what I did it for. I wanted to see if there was such athing here. It was necessary to get down on the floor to see it, andthere it was."

  "But what on earth----?"

  Mr. Narkom did not bother to complete the sentence. It would have beenuseless. Cleek had walked away and left him--going back to the placewhere the duke and the others were standing.

  "I think, Duke, it will be as well to return to the vicarage," he said,"and leave the rest of this unpleasant business to the law alone. I amsorry, gentlemen, that I have put you all to the useless trouble ofcoming out here. I should not have done so had I known or even guessedof Carstairs' act. Still, it doesn't matter. You know the result; youknow the game. The robbery of the gold service has been prevented, thecriminals unmasked, and--that's all. I think we may be satisfied thatthe riddle has been solved."

  "Do you? Well, I'm blest if I do, then!" exclaimed Captain Weatherley."There is one little point which you decidedly have not cleared up, ifyou don't mind my saying so. That thing!" Here he flung out his hand andmade a sweeping gesture in the direction of the bell-tower, from whichthe discordant clang had all the time been sounding. "How about that,please? Who has been managing that little dodge, and--how?"

  "Oh, the ghost, you mean?"

  "Yes, the ghost, the power--the thing, or whatever it is, that ringsbells without ropes, and yet--Uppingham, Essex, look round, look round,for Heaven's sake. It has got beyond mere sound alone--it has becomevisible now--visible! Look, there's a light there--a light!"

  "Yes," said Cleek. "It appeared for the first time last night. It gaveme quite a shock for the minute, until I remembered."

  "Remembered?"

  "Yes. Our friend Mr. Overton arranged it for me. He knew, of course,that 'George Headland' would inspect the place some time or another, andhe wanted to back up his little ghost story of the night before."

  "Overton? Overton, Mr. Cleek?"

  "Yes; he is a quite ingenious gentleman when you come to know him--onlyhe is not very original at bottom, I fear. Would you like to see theValehampton ghost laid, Captain? Would you like to know how bells can berung without hands or ropes, or wires, or anything of that sort,gentlemen? Very well, then, step this way, and you shall."

  Here, beckoning Norton to follow, he walked to the lich-gate, opened it,and, accompanied by the six men, led the way to the belfry.

  The clanging bells still flung their discord upon the air, the globe oflight still circled in the darkness of the tower's top, and, althoughthe head which had devised it was laid low and the hand which haddirected it was now a manacled one, the Valehampton ghost still playedits uncanny part.

  Cleek turned to the gamekeeper, a smile hovering around his lips.

  "Gun for a minute, please. Norton. Thanks. Keep your eyes on the light,gentlemen, and stand back a bit. All ready, are you?"

  _Bang! Bang!_

  The gun barked twice in rapid succession, and two charges of buckshotrattled against the bells. A scream, almost human in its note, shrilledout from the tower's top, the ball of light lurched outward and cametumbling downward till it struck the earth with a curious crunchingsound, and then lay quiet in a cloud of fullers' earth.

  "Gentlemen, the Valehampton Ghost," said Cleek; then he whipped out historch and switched a circle of light upon it where it lay--a littleblack monkey with a wire muzzle over its mouth and a sponge that glowedbrightly and smelt strongly of phosphorus fastened to the top of itsshattered head. And hard by the spot where it lay there was one singletrail of its footprints going across the fullers' earth and pointingtoward the stone tower.